He's 12 and up until about a year ago, nothing had slowed him down. Old age started to creep in; hearing problems, arthritis, a bit more anxiety. However, he still had that spirit and goofy love that a lab has.

I got him as a private rescue. The local animal control officer is a friend who found him for me when I bought my first house. He needed a new home, because he was too much for the previous owner.

Anyway.. about a month or two ago he developed what we thought were allergies. Sneezing, occasional stuffiness. Etc. I had brought him to the vet for a check up and oddly enough the kennel vaccine (nasal vaccine) so we could go to the dog park (he had gotten kennel cough there over the summer).

Doctor and I talked about giving him Claritan, which we did.

It helped for a while. He would still have bouts of congestion and sneezing. When he has a really bad sneeze, he would hit his snout off the ground really hard! Well, he started getting nose bleeds around christmas time and I assumed it was from his sneezes. His hearing also got really bad, but I figured he was just getting older.

Then last week, I noticed a lump on the side of his nose about 3/4 of the way down his snout towards his head. Around the same time, he was really having a hard time breathing through his nose at times (just awful sounding heaving and wheezing). I figured bad allergies and gave him nasal saline drops (it seemed to help).

When I noticed the lump (about an inch long and protrudes about 1/4 inch) I knew it was something else and searched for nasal cancer.

Today, we went to the vet. She advises that it could be an infection, but because the lump is so very distinct, it was more than likely cancer.

Knowing ahead of time didn't help, even though I wasn't sure.

Tomorrow we go for an xray series while he's under sedation. They will more than likely biopsy it as well. No food after midnight (which for a lab is just torture), so we both snacked on some yummies and just hung around like the buddies we are!

Reading these posts have helped me better prepare for tomorrow and the months (weeks??) to come.

As a young dog, he was SO wild and crazy (in the good way), goofy and what my dutch great grandmother would call "mukksus (probably not how it's spelled if it is a real word, but she explained it meant goofy, dumb and lovable)". So full of life!

I wont watch him be in pain and suffer. No way. As much as it pains me, I will do the right thing for him and help him on his journey onward.

I'll be with him until the end, as loyal to him as he was to me. No wait, I could never match his loyalty, dogs are truly an amazing breed.

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Okay.. had to get that and a good cry out.

Does anyone have experience with Proxicam? I think that's how it's spelled?